Thursday, January 31, 2013

Some Unions Grow Wary of Health Law They Backed, Want Government Subsidies To Pay Their Insurance Plans

Labor unions enthusiastically backed the Obama administration's health-care overhaul when it was up for debate. Now that the law is rolling out, some are turning sour.

Union leaders say many of the law's requirements will drive up the costs for their health-care plans and make unionized workers less competitive. Among other things, the law eliminates the caps on medical benefits and prescription drugs used as cost-containment measures in many health-care plans. It also allows children to stay on their parents' plans until they turn 26.

To offset that, the nation's largest labor groups want their lower-paid members to be able to get federal insurance subsidies while remaining on their plans. In the law, these subsidies were designed only for low-income workers without employer coverage as a way to help them buy private insurance.

In early talks, the Obama administration dismissed the idea of applying the subsidies to people in union-sponsored plans, according to officials from the trade group, the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, that represents these insurance plans.

Contacted for this article, Obama administration officials said the issue is subject to regulations still being written.

Some 20 million Americans are covered by the health-care plans at issue in labor's push for subsidies. The plans are jointly managed by unions and employers and used mostly by small companies. They are popular in industries such as construction or trucking or hotels, where workers' hours fluctuate. By contrast, unionized workers at big employers such as Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. tend to have a more traditional insurance arrangement run through only one employer.

A jihadist website posted a new threat by al Qaeda this week that promises to conduct “shocking” attacks on the United States and the West.

The posting appeared on the Ansar al Mujahidin network Sunday and carried the headline, “Map of al Qaeda and its future strikes.”

The message, in Arabic, asks: “Where will the next strike by al Qaeda be?” A translation was obtained by Inside the Ring.

“The answer for it, in short: The coming strikes by al Qaeda, with God’s Might, will be in the heart of the land of nonbelief, America, and in France, Denmark, other countries in Europe, in the countries that helped and are helping France, and in other places that shall be named by al Qaeda at other times,” the threat states.

The attacks will be “strong, serious, alarming, earth-shattering, shocking and terrifying.”

Leaked emails have allegedly proved that the White House gave the green light to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that could be blamed on Assad's regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country.

A report released on Monday contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence where a scheme 'approved by Washington' is outlined explaining that Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons.

There is a very clean argument that this is a solicitation to commit mass-murder using banned weapons of mass destruction.

That is, exactly the sort of thing that people went to the gallows for at Nuremburg.

One of the sources cited is, unfortunately, Infowars. But there appears to be some corroborating evidence.

This is absolutely something that needs immediate investigation given that it is now in the International news and appears to have at least some independent evidence of veracity.

Arabs of UAE Too Stupid To Remember To Put Sewage Systems in Skyscrapers of Abu Dhabi

Nice central planning.
The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Abu Dhabi, was not built with an adequate sewage system. All of the human waste in the 829 meter tall building has to be removed by trucks.

Today I learned something that also defies belief: all the poop produced there has to be removed by trucks.

Let’s do the math here. The Burj Khalifa has 163 habitable floors. It’s designed to hold 35,000 people at any given time. Now, humans produce 100 to 250 grams (3 to 8 ounces) of feces per day. Let’s say 200 in this case, since these people are well fed. That’s 7,000,000 grams per day. Seven tonnes of poop per day. Now, add human-produced liquids (pee, bathing, cleaning their teeth…) and the water to push the poop down its miles of sewage pipes. I think a very conservative total would be 15 tonnes of sewage per day.

That’s a lot of poop.

And all of it has to be removed by trucks. The trucks take all this poop to a sewage treatement facility outside of the city. It’s the same with most skyscrapers in Dubai, according to Kate Ascher, author of The Heights. Talking to Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, Kate said that these trucks are in a permanent line waiting to get into the sewage treatment plant, waiting up to 24 hours before they can unload their crap.

The trucks have to wait for hours before they can dump their crap outside of town.

How does anyone get to be that stupid?

Click on the title to see the video.

Or, just go watch Idiocracy.From Ciccio:

Google "sewage in Dubai" and you will find 100 items, including a video of 3 miles of bumper to bumper 10,000gal."poop trucks". It is not that the skyscrapers did not connect to the sewage system, there just is no sewage system in the new development. Three miles bumper to bumper is about 500 trucks- 50,000 tons.

Islamic scholars agree that Sharia (Islamic law) embraces the law, the state, religion and politics. In fact, Islam is not a religion in any Western sense of the word. It is a complete ideological system. Islam has military, political, legal, economic, social, and religious components. Islam primarily is a political and military doctrine, dedicated to world conquest that wears the cloak of religion. The religious cloak is the cover and the Trojan horse it uses to infiltrate the cultures, nations and civilizations it seeks to destroy and replace with Islamic totalitarianism.

Scholar and former Muslim Ibn Warraq says, “Islam itself is a fascist ideology. Islamic fundamentalism is a totalitarian construct derived by Muslim jurists from the fundamental and defining texts of Islam [Qur’an, ahadith, Sira].” Like Marxism and Nazism, Islam is a brutal, oppressive totalitarian ideology that is completely incompatible with democracy, individual liberty, and individualism.

Murder is a core Islamic “value.” Islam commands Muslims to kill non-Muslims. It is their religious duty. Surah 9:5, 9:29, and other Qur’anic verses command Muslims to, “Fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them…” More than 100 times the Qur’an calls Muslims to jihad until the supremacy of Islam over the entire world is complete. Islam is a system that institutionalizes war, conquest, imperialism and subjugation as its normative behaviors.

In his 1955 book “War and Peace in the Law of Islam,” internationally renowned Iraqi scholar of Sharia, Majid Khadduri explained that, “the Islamic state … sought to establish Islam as the dominant reigning ideology over the entire world. The jihad was therefore employed as an instrument for both the universalization of religion and the establishment of an imperial world state.”

Hatred is a core Islamic “value.” Hatred is built into Islam. Former Muslim Walid Shoebat says, “Hatred of Jews was my education, what I was taught each day by teachers and parents and the entire community. I knew nothing else.”

The Qur’an says Allah hates non-Muslims and sees them as worse than animals. He compares non-Muslims with dogs, pigs, apes. (Q8:55, Q25:44, Q7:176). Muslims and non-Muslims can never be equal (Q39:9; also Q6:50, 28:61, 32:19, 35:19-22, 38:28, 40:58, 45:21, 59:20, 67:22, 68:35). Muslims are the “best of peoples” (Q3:110); Unbelievers are the “vilest of creatures” (98:6). The Pagans are unclean (Q9:28).

Housed on the Hudson Institute website, The Center for Religious Freedom produced a report published in 2005 entitled, “Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques.” Here are a few quotes from the Saudi material: “Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law. It is a religious obligation for Muslims to hate Christians and Jews. It is a Muslim’s religious duty to cultivate enmity between oneself and unbelievers.”

Muhammad said, “War is deceit.” Like other totalitarian ideologies, lies and deceit are common tools.

- “Lying and deceit are a part of the Islamic mind-set.” (Former Muslim, former Al-Azhar University professor, Dr Mark Gabriel)

- “Muslims have every right to lie and to deceive their adversaries, and a promise made to a non-Muslim can be broken whenever necessary.” (Amir Taheri)

- “it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible.” (al-Ghazali, 1058-1111)

According to the authoritative Arabic text, Al-Taqiyya Fi Al-Islam:

- “Taqiyya [deception] is of fundamental importance in Islam.

- Practically every Islamic sect agrees to it and practices it.

- We can go so far as to say that the practice of taqiyya is mainstream in Islam.

- Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era.”

There are other forms of Muslim deceit, such as tawriya (creative lying) and different meanings for the same words. In Islam, “freedom” means perfect submission to Allah and Sharia. Peace means no opposition, a society under Sharia. Same with “terrorism”; they call it “resistance”. Islamic “resistance” includes mass-murder attacks against people

Since the sacred goal of jihad is to make Islam supreme in this world, every lie told to achieve that goal is not only permitted, but sanctified. Obviously it is good for Islam that the infidel should be kept ignorant of their true intentions, which leads us to the subject at hand.

Muslims are very shrew[d] when it comes to giving gullible infidels a sanitized, revisionist version of Islam, which has nothing to do with reality. Islam and its apologists have been very successful in placing blatantly false materials before the American public. Our media is filled with Islamic apologists who regularly mislead us. PBS has broadcast numerous “documentaries” filled with falsehoods that deceive viewers into thinking Islam is not violent. PBS is a shill for Islam. Leftists and Islam’s apologist dominate our universities. Factual and historical information is blocked. Students are given a false understanding of Islam and its intentions.

Although I have neither read the books nor seen the DVD NEH is attempting to place in our community colleges, based on the titles of some of the books, I seriously doubt they address the aforementioned realities of Islam. Nor would I expect them to include the truth concerning Islam’s view of human rights (rejected), freedom of speech (not tolerated), religious freedom (not tolerated), oppression of women (including female genital mutilation), the plight of children (e.g., child marriages – a euphemism for child rape), slavery and slaveholding (still prevalent in Islam), or Islam being totally incompatible with, and hostile to democracy. By the way, Dr. Thomas Sowell did the research and found that Islam has enslaved 25 million black Africans from the seventh century until the present day. Islam’s enslavement of Africans continues today.

And yet nothing is done about this modern day slavemongering.

This letter is very informative about the dangers imposed not only by Islamofascism, but by it's apologists too.

Video - Greta Van Susteren interviews Hillary Clinton about Middle East ,Pres Morsi and Benghazi.HT: BarrackNow. Greta brings up Morsi's 2010 comments, which included him saying the Jews were descendants of "apes and pigs", and that Egypt must "nurse its children on hatred of the Jews". A few hours before Greta's interview, reports came out that a close Morsi aid said the Holocaust never happened and that the Jews secretly moved to the U.S.

In a recent interview on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press,” NAACP CEO and president, Ben Jealous, told the show’s host that black Americans “are doing far worse” than when President Obama first took office. “The country’s back to pretty much where it was when this president started,” Jealous told show host David Gregory. “White people in this country are doing a bit better. Black people are doing far worse.”

The Labor Department reports that the black unemployment rate was at 12.7 percent when Pres. Obama initially took office. As the employment rate for the nation dropped below 8 percent, black unemployment increased to 12.9 percent and then to 14 percent for December.

Fuck Obama

Israel hits target in Syria border area: sources

From Yahoo:

LONDON (Reuters) - Israeli forces attacked a convoy on the Syrian-Lebanese border overnight, a Western diplomat and regional security sources said on Wednesday, as concern has grown in the Jewish state over the fate of Syrian chemical and advanced conventional weapons.

The sources, four in total, all of whom declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, had no further information about what the vehicles may have been carrying, what forces were used or where precisely the attack happened.

In the run-up to the raid, Israeli officials have been warning very publicly of a threat of high-tech anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles reaching Israel's enemies in the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah from Syria. They have also echoed U.S. concerns about Syria's presumed chemical weapons arsenal.

The Lebanese army reported a heavy presence of Israeli jets over its territory throughout the night.

"There was definitely a hit in the border area," one security source said. A Western diplomat in the region who asked about the strike said "something has happened", without elaborating.

An activist in Syria who works with a network of opposition groups around the country said that she had heard of a strike in southern Syria from her colleagues but could not confirm it. A strike just inside Lebanon would appear a less diplomatically explosive option for Israel to avoid provoking Syrian ally Iran.

OT Sports:Joe Flacco is a ‘challenged’ MAROON

“I think it’s retarded. I probably shouldn’t say that. I think it’s stupid,” said Flacco. “If you want a Super Bowl, put a retractable dome on your stadium. Then you can get one… Other than that I don’t really like the idea. I don’t think people would react very well to it, or be glad to play anybody in that kind of weather.”

One of the greatest playoff games EVER PLAYED occurred on Jan 19, 2002.

This is the famous (or infamous if you are from Oakland) Tuck Rule game won by Adam Vinateri’s tying field goal, then winning in overtime in a snow storm.

In 1967 the Green Bay Packers won the Championship under horrific conditions. the ICE BOWL, Dec 31 1967, with the temperature on the field in Green Bay -15 F, and the wind chill -70.

These games may be the two greatest playoff games ever played, and certainly among the greatest ever played. Not only were the games proper incredible but the adverse conditions lifted the competition to another plane.

Both winners were world champions that year.

This very set of properties, not only playing for a championship, but doing so on an EVEN PLAYING FIELD with the competition under such conditions TESTS the caliber of the players, and coaches in ways which make every play far more dramatic.

Apparently Mr. Flacco may be the best quarterback for a Baltimore, where snow is measured in a few inches most of the time, if at all, and perhaps he actually longs for a Miami, or San Diego.

I hope the Super Bowls are played soon in Foxboro, and Green Bay.

In February.

Therefore, go 49'rs.
Whiners playing a GAME for a living and making TENS OF MILLIONS for doing so can kiss my Mainer ass.

File under: How to Make Obama INCREDIBLY popular

Danger Room - U.N. Drone Investigator: If Facts Lead to U.S. War Crimes, So Be It

Ben Emmerson wants to be clear: He’s not out to ban flying killer robots used by the CIA or the U.S. military. But the 49-year-old British lawyer is about to become the bane of the drones’ existence, thanks to the United Nations inquiry he launched last week into their deadly operations.

Emmerson, the United Nations’ special rapporteur for human rights and counterterrorism, will spend the next five months doing something the Obama administration has thoroughly resisted: unearthing the dirty secrets of a global counterterrorism campaign that largely relies on rapidly proliferating drone technology.Announced on Thursday in London, it’s the first international inquiry into the drone program, and one that carries the imprimatur of the world body. By the next session of the United Nations in the fall, Emmerson hopes to provide the General Assembly with an report on 25 drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Palestine where civilian deaths are credibly alleged.

That carries the possibility of a reckoning with the human damage left by drones, the first such witnessing by the international community. Accountability, Emmerson tells Danger Room in a Monday phone interview, “is the central purpose of the report.” He’s not shying away from the possibility of digging up evidence of “war crimes,” should the facts point in that direction. But despite the Obama administration’s secrecy about the drone strikes to date, he’s optimistic that the world’s foremost users of lethal drone tech will cooperate with him.

With Obama as president, and his SOLE protective action being this program, you can bet everyone from Inhofe, Cruz, McCain, Rubio and Cantor will be UNIFIED in their defense of Mr. Obama, whose approval ratings will SOAR.

Perhaps the UN would have approved a declaraltion of war in 2001, WHICH COULD NOT HAVE ENDED since there is no one to sign a surrender or a peace agreement. That way the 10 - 100 times as many casualties ON THE OTHER SIDE would be ‘legal’

We need civility across our nation. What we are seeing are symptoms of a bigger problem.. . The problem is not gun laws. The problem is a lack of civility. We need civility across our nation, we need common decency to prevail

-- Mark Mattioli, father of six year old James Mattioli, slain at Sandy Hook

I saw this yesterday when it first came out and have been waiting for a video to post.

Mark Mattioli, testifying against gun control, even though his son was one of the Sandy Hook victims.

Betar Jerusalem owner Arkadi Gaydamak vowed not to yield to the racist minority of his club’s supporters on Sunday as the sports world and senior ministers alike condemned the anti-Muslim bigotry displayed by fans at Teddy Stadium during Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Bnei Yehuda.

The Betar supporters reacted angrily to Gaydamak’s announcement that the club plans to sign Muslims Dzhabrail Kadiyev and Zaur Sadayev from Chechen club Terek Grozny, raising banners reading: “Betar [will be] pure forever” and “70 years of values,” with numerous fans also voicing their opposition to Muslim players joining the club by singing anti-Arab chants.

A Muslim player, Nigerian defender Ibrahim Nadalla, was on the team briefly in 2005 but left after experiencing consistent hostility from its supporters. [...]

Umm al-Fahm of the National League plans to bring 2,500 fans to the potentially volatile showdown at Teddy and coach Samir Issa promised his players would leave the pitch should Betar fans deride Muhammad.

Police at the match on Saturday arrested three supporters on suspicion of incitement, with two of them being banned on Sunday from entering stadiums until the end of the 2013/14 season.

“I was shocked by the racism displayed in the Betar Jerusalem stands yesterday against having Muslim or Arab players on the team,” Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Sunday.

While I won't say that people calling for Beitar to be "pure" are doing the right thing, and if they voiced anti-Arab chants, that was definitely bad, I will say that if Yaalon is going to infer that this was literally "racism" rather than anti-religious sentiment is a very poor way to conduct an argument. I have nothing against adding some Arabic players to the team, but I do have a problem if they're going to adhere to Islam, that's for sure. Of course, these 2 players Gaydamak - who's got a very questionable character - wants to include on the team, are not even Arabic but rather Chechnyan, so I'm not sure how anyone perceived this backlash as "racism" in that framework.

If the fans don't like the choices, they shouldn't even be attending the games or paying their money for them. Why they're not following that simple advice is beyond me.

Army Does Unexplained "Multi-Agency Drill" Over Houston, Without Warning

With military helicopters flying above her southeast Houston neighborhood, Frances Jerrals didn't know what to think.

"When you see this, you think the worst. When you hear this, you think the worst," Jerrals said.

And so, she passed along her concern.

"She told me 'don't come home it sounds like we're in a war zone. Guns, shooting, helicopters flying around the house,'" Isaac Robertson Jr. said.

The U.S. Army along with other agencies took over the old Carnegie Vanguard High School near Scott and Airport. There were armed men in fatigues, plenty of weapons and what many thought were real live rounds

"I felt like I was in a warzone." Jerrals said. "It was nonstop. I was terrified."

Turns out, it was a multi-agency training drill that Jerrals wished would have come with warning.

"They could have done a better job in notifying the neighborhood," Jerrals said.

The Army did not give any details of what the training is for. Some people we spoke to needed no explanation.

ObamaCare And Immigration

Governors who reject health insurance for the poor under the federal health care overhaul could wind up in a politically awkward position on immigration: A quirk in the law means some U.S. citizens would be forced to go without coverage, while legal immigrants residing in the same state could still get it....

In the summer of 2009 I was making $28.25 an hour plus overtime at time and a half, double time Sundays (and there was ALWAYS overtime).

8 months into Obama and my position was unceremoniously and without warning eliminated.

And then I was making (roughly) $14.12 an hour on unemployment (we won't again discuss the tens of thousands spent from my now defunct IRA and the former wealth I still owe the government for the privilege of using my own money).

Then for about 10 months I had no income at all. Until I started working in the backroom of the Big Box Retailer (no, not that one, the other one)(I lift things up and put them down).

Where I now make $8.25 an hour for less than 40 hrs a week

Since they carved my old position into many tiny pieces and gave them to a bunch of supervisors plus a little outsourcing tell me, where did that other $20 an hour (plus overtime)($800 a week)(plus overtime) go?

Why, right back into the pocket of the corporate entity that formerly employed me of course.

Monday, January 28, 2013

ObamaCare And Insurance Premiums

A 25% rate hike, and I barely ever use the policy, a policy of a catastrophic nature with zero pharmacy coverage and a high deductible.

Didn't Obama say that the reforming health insurance according to ObamaCare would keep health-insurance costs down?

Pfffft.

To top it all off, my longtime physician (not a gold digger by any means) is now advising that his patients pay $40.50 every month so as to have the guarantee of timely appointments, access to medical records and referrals at no additional charge, and quick responses to emails and phone calls.

How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of.

-- Suzanna Hupp

Her Congressional Testimony over 20 years ago:

I'm not really mad at the guy that did this, and I'm certainly not mad at the guns that did this. They didn't walk in there by themselves and pull their own triggers. The guy that did it was a lunatic. That's like being mad at a rabid dog. I'm mad at my legislators for legislating me out of the right to protect myself and my family.

With proponents of gun control emboldened and opponents of gun control embattled at the Federal level, it was probably only a matter of time before states started trying to flex their muscles over the question of any new regulations.

The Virginia Pilot reports the Virginia House of Delegates recently voted a bill out of committee that would effectively ban Virginia’s law enforcement community from enforcing any new regulations on gun rights by the Federal government.

The Seattle Police Department held its first gun buyback event since the 1990s this weekend, offering people gift cards for their firearms. However, dozens of private buyers showed up in an effort to acquire the guns using the so-called gun show loophole, which allows guns to be sold without a background check.

Hundreds of people showed up Saturday morning to give their rifles and shotguns as well as semi-automatic rifles to police in exchange for gift cards worth $100 and $200 respectively, KING 5 reports. The police planned to destroy the guns and use them as rebar in local construction projects.

Meanwhile, a number of private buyers set up a makeshift gun show-style event and offered cold hard cash for guns and even lured customers with donuts.

The battle over the right to bear arms is flaring in Vermont, where a local gun range has moved to prohibit the Burlington Police Department from training at its facilities after the City Council voted to advance a measure banning semi-automatic rifles and large-capacity magazines.
The leadership of the Lamoille Valley Fish and Game Club explained that it's "difficult" for the club to support the city -- even its officers -- given the actions of the council.
"We have members in Burlington as well as members of our club that are going to be passing through Burlington and this would directly affect them and we felt that a prejudicial vote like that was going to be non-supportive of our club and being non-supportive of our club makes it very difficult to support Burlington City," said Bob Boivin, chairman of the Lamoille Valley Fish and Game Club.
"It is a constitutional issue. I mean, it's not just a Second Amendment constitutional issue; but it's also a constitutional issue for Vermont. We have laws that have the state governing our gun controls in this area and they're looking to supersede those," he said.

The former Media Matters for America staffer in charge of guarding the group’s leader not only committed multiple felonies when he carried firearms across the country but did so with the organization’s blessing and money, according to a report in the The Daily Caller Monday.
Multiple guns were reportedly bought and used to protect liberal leader David Brock. They were purchased with member money and were green-lighted by the head of the group, according to an unnamed source.
The Daily Caller reports that Brock's assistant carried a concealed Glock handgun without the proper permit.

Within days of opening its 51st Legislature, Arizona state lawmakers have begun considering HB 2291--a bill which declares any federal attempt to "ban or restrict ownership of a semi-automatic firearm... unenforceable" in the state.
Moreover, the bill also lists as "unenforceable" any federal ban on magazines for such weapons and categorizes any requirement for firearm registration as a non-starter as well.
As Wyoming, Texas, and Oklahoma have done, AZ H.B. 2291 threatens felony charges for federal gun grabbers who seek to enforce these measures.

President Obama reiterated his determination Monday to see Congress act to reduce gun violence.
"The only way that we're going to be able to do everything that needs to be done is with the cooperation of Congress," he said at the start of a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and law enforcement officials from the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the Major County Sheriffs Association."That means passing serious laws that restrict the access and availability of assault weapons and magazine clips that aren't necessary for hunters and sportsmen, those responsible gun owners who are out there. It means that we are serious about universal background checks, it means that we take seriously issues of mental health and school safety," he said.

The Parallel Government
Of The Entire World

All of us, every single man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth were born with the same unalienable rights; to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And, if the governments of the world can't get that through their thick skulls, then, regime change will be necessary.

The Untold Story of Muslim Opinions & Demographics

Infidel Babe Of The Week
Moran Atias - TYRANT

IBA Quote of the Week.

"The tank, the B-52, the fighter-bomber, the state-controlled police and military are the weapons of dictatorship. The rifle is the weapon of democracy. Not for nothing was the revolver called an "equalizer." Egalite implies liberte. And always will. Let us hope our weapons are never needed — but do not forget what the common people of this nation knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An armed citizenry is the first defense, the best defense, and the final defense against tyranny."

"An Islamic regime must be serious in every field," explained Ayatollah Khomeini. "There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humour in Islam. There is no fun in Islam."

****************

"I want to be very, very clear, however: I understand and agree with the analysis of the problem. There is an imminent threat. It manifested itself on 9/11. It's real and grave. It is as serious a threat as Stalinism and National Socialism were. Let's not pretend it isn't."~~~~~Bono~~~~~